Kay Coyte

Racing journalist and horseman Josh Pons has been named the recipient of the 2024 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, presented by the Ryan family's Castleton Lyons, for excellence in thoroughbred racing literature published in 2024. He received the winner's $10,000 check during a Nov. 6 reception at the Lexington, Ky., farm. Pons won for 'Letters from Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm', a retrospective of the Golden Age of racing as viewed through a remarkable trove of correspondence to his grandfather,...

Arthur B. Hancock III, John Perrotta, and Josh Pons have been named finalists for the 19th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, which celebrates excellence in Thoroughbred sports literature. Two of the titles, Hancock's "Dark Horses: A Memoir of Redemption" and Pons's "Letters From Country Life: Adolphe Pons, Man o' War, and the Founding of Maryland's Oldest Thoroughbred Farm" are biographies steeped in the family Thoroughbred history of each author. Perrotta, a lifelong horseman who has been a racetrack and stable manager, jockey agent and radio executive, joins the group...

A trio of authors have been selected as finalists for the 19th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award with the winner being selected on Thursday, Nov. 7 at Castleton Lyons near Lexington, Kentucky, the farm said in a Friday morning release. This year's finalists are: Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey by Katherine C. Mooney Lexington: The Extraordinary Life and Turbulent Times of America's Legendary Racehorse by Kim Wickens The Turcottes: The Remarkable Story of a Horse Racing Dynasty by Curtis Stock The winner will receive...

An extraordinary time-hopping, historical novel; a compelling biography of potential greatness and a life cut short; and a powerful, category-bending work of fiction told as the oral history of a hard-luck horsewoman. Horse, by Geraldine Brooks, Landaluce: The Story of Seattle Slew's First Champion, by Mary Perdue, and Kick The Latch, by Kathryn Scanlan are the three finalists for the 17th Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award, decided upon by a panel of racing and literary judges. "The 2022 nominees included a refreshing group of voices new to this Book Award,...

A trio of finalists have been announced for the 15th annual Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award. The three finalists are Diane Crump, A Horse-Racing Pioneer's Life in the Saddle, by Mark Sharger; Good Things Come, by Linda Shantz; and Sylvia Rideoutt Bishop, Had a Way With Horses, by Vicki Moon. "This was the year of debut authors, including the fiction finalist [Vicki Moon]," said judge Kay Coyte, a former Washington Post and racing publications editor. "Part of the mission of the Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award is to encourage new...

A total of six semi-finalists, from 15 submissions, for the 2020 Dr. Tony Ryan Book Award have been selected by a panel of racing industry and literary judges. The semi-finalists are: Better Lucky Than Good: Tall Tales and Straight Talk from the Backside of the Track, by Louisville Story Program Justify: 111 Days to Triple Crown Glory, by Lenny Shulman The Key to the Quarter Pole, by Robin Traywick Williams Spectacular Bid: The Last Superhorse of the Twentieth Century, by Peter Lee The Travers: 150 Years of Saratoga's Greatest Race,...